Modern aircraft include numerous avionics systems and other electronic components or modules. An individual aircraft may include, for example, a navigation system, a communication system, a flight management system, an autopilot system, an autothrust system, an electronic flight bag, and a display system. Historically, in some implementations, each system has its own set of user input devices, such as buttons, switches, keys, knobs, sliders, joysticks, and the like, for receiving input from a pilot, co-pilot, or crew. As result, there may be a considerable number of user input devices within the cockpit of the aircraft. Additionally, each avionics system may be associated with its own display.
To simplify the process of obtaining information from avionics systems, modern aircraft systems consolidate the displays from individual avionics systems to a few central display devices. In addition, to reduce the number of user input devices within the cockpit, some prior art systems also consolidate the functionality of the user input devices for the various avionics systems to a reduced set of input devices, for example, by consolidating functionality of similar input devices across the various avionics systems with an individual input device. This may provide a more consistent user interface and reduce aircraft weight; however, the amount of information and/or functionality associated with a particular display and/or input device increases the complexity of operation. During operation of the aircraft, it is desirable that a pilot, co-pilot or other crew member, be able to quickly and conveniently interact with the avionics systems to operate the avionics systems and/or obtain information needed to ensure safe operation of the aircraft. Some prior art systems attempt to implement speech recognition systems to enable a pilot to quickly and reliably interact with the various avionics systems and cockpit components. However, these systems fail to account for various aspects of the aircraft operation, such as the operating environment, heightened reliability and accuracy requirements, time-sensitive nature of some aircraft operations, and other safety concerns.
Customized vocabulary is often used to narrow the options of correctly recognizing commands. This vocabulary requires pilots to memorize commands which increase workload and doesn't translate to other systems. Using discrete words rather than continuous speech is unnatural to the user and places limits on usability where a continuous string of words such as a radio frequency are better stated all at once rather than in a stilted progression.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods that account for various aspects of the aircraft operation that considers a string of words. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the exemplary embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.